Originally published April 1, 2011 at midnight, updated April 1, 2011 at midnight
It’s amazing how a basketball game can make so many people feel so much. My heart still hurts days after the Jayhawks’ loss to VCU in the NCAA tournament. I never cared about basketball before I came to the University of Kansas, and now one game can make or break my mood for days.
I get wrapped up in it, probably more than most. Maybe this is because I have always been emotional and sentimental. I love with my whole heart. This goes for both people and things, and, I’ve come to find, even sports.
To be honest, it’s not really the game I have come to love. Watching KU basketball has made me appreciate the sport, but there’s still a lot about the game I don’t understand. I haven’t developed a love for basketball, but a love for everything KU basketball represents.
KU basketball is a symbol of my time here and of the person this University has helped me become. I have tied my emotions with a basketball team to my emotions about a place, about a chapter of my life.
I love this university. I love it for the same reasons other KU students do, and I’m sure for the same reasons most college students everywhere love their alma maters. The people I have met here have not only become some of my closest friends, but have also helped me to grow. The professors here have not only taught me about history, language and politics but have also taught me about life.
I don’t love the University just because it has an amazing basketball team or because I have lived the last four years with no curfew and few responsibilities. I love it because this is where I developed a passion for journalism. This is where I learned the power of words, and I can’t imagine making a living any other way but to use them.
Last Sunday, as I watched the last few minutes of the Jayhawks’ run in the NCAA tournament, I had to walk away from the television. I couldn’t accept that it was over.
I started to cry, just like I did when we lost in 2009 and in 2010. But this time it stung a little more. It felt more real.
The final score of the game not only represented the end of this year’s basketball season, but also the end of my time as a KU student. Just as I couldn’t watch the last few minutes of the last game of the season, I also am not ready to close this chapter of my life.
With graduation nearly seven weeks away, I know I must embrace this new chapter. I know it will be filled with just as much happiness as my college years, and maybe even more. I just can’t help but feel a little sad as I watch the pages turn.
But mixed in with my emotions of sadness and fear, there are also feelings of excitement and accomplishment. I will leave knowing the skills I have developed here will help me succeed.
Until the Jayhawks are national champions again, I will probably cry every March during the NCAA tournament. But the fact that a basketball game can make me feel so much proves that no matter where I go or what I do, or what this scary, but exciting future holds for me, one thing will remain the same. I will always be a Jayhawk.
— Brown is a senior in journalism from Wichita. She also is a writer for the Kansan Editorial Board.
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Brown: Basketball loss bittersweet as a wonderful chapter closes
Love this, Erin.
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